One has hatched !!!!!!!!

He is so beutiful and he got out so fast its so cute I've never seen such a cute chick ever I never thought he would be so cute But no one else is haching I want to pet him so badley But I have to wait tommorow

Well, Day 22 and out of 23 eggs, some were from 12/28, 12/29 and even one that hung out in the refrig for a day before we set them in our homemade bator on Jan 1st we had one unfertilized, one blood ring, 2 that stopped forming after a couple of days and now we have 18 hatched babies and one egg that is quite heavy, but not pipping.

We transferred our peeps after a few would get dry and fluffy, sometimes after 6 hours to give the rest of the eggs a chance to hatch and the babies to relax in the bator without getting stepped on.

Our humidity fluctuated from 80% to 10 % during our incubation period. We tried to keep it close to 45-60%, but sometimes it dried out really quick. On day 18 we taped the bator shut and jacked up the humidity to 65-70%.

We made our bator out of a very old plastic cooler. We cut a big hole in the top and duct taped plexiglass over the opening so we could watch. hooked up a PC fan on one wall, a light bulb on a perpendicular wall with a single pole thermostat to regulate the heat. Our heat got up to 117 degrees at one point with the eggs in the bator, so we opened it up and cut a metal roasting pan in half and made a heat shield that kept the eggs cooler and the thermostat shut off the light sooner. Our heat fluctuated between 95 and 103 registered on a dry thermometer. We also put a false wire bottom in the cooler so we could flood it with water for humidity (just enough water to cover the bottom). We drilled 6 little holes on two sides for ventillation and also left the cooler drain opening open.
Prayers of thanksgiving for God allowing us to partake in this miracle and whala...18 babies.

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who writes such wonderful information on this site. It was very reassuring and helpful. This was my daughters 4th grade science project. She is actually "littlepeep"!